The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau requesting that January 29 be designated as a “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia.” This was the first anniversary of the attack on the Centre culturel islamique de Québec or CCIQ. Alexandre Bissonnette is charged with having killed six and wounded eight.
In the letter, NCCM Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee says that this horrific act of violence occurred “solely because the victims were Muslims”.
The January 29, 2017 attack was not an isolated event. In June 2016, a pig’s head was left at the mosque. Three weeks later the mosque’s neighbourhood was pamphleted and labelled as a Muslim Brotherhood centre. Following that, a blog site appeared. This blog also identified the CCIQ as a Muslim Brotherhood centre and raised the question “which one is more serious, a pig’s head or a genocide?” This suggests a connection between these three events.